The last twelve months have seen an outbreak of Kickstarter fever. Old devs, new devs, indie devs, everyone with an idea and some concept art has been scrambling to the service in an attempt to get their dream game made.

Part of the appeal for both backers and developers is that, in theory, it removes the need for publishers, and all the focus-testing and creative meddling that often goes along with them.

So this statement, from Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart, is more than a little concerning. Writing on the Project Eternity Kickstarter page, he says:

The Project Eternity Kickstarter campaign, which launched just last Friday, had easily surpassed…
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We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a Kickstarter. I said to them 'So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don't get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits.'

They said, 'Yes'.

Sadly, he does not name names. Nor does he give enough information to deduce just who it might have been. If you just assume it's all the big publishers, then, you'll be at least partially right!